


If Only For a Moment

by HailsRose



Series: Substantial Happenings [3]
Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: AND I had to go back and rewatch the anime, Gen, anyway I somehow managed to make myself feel peace while writing this, because we all love alternate realities, don't we?, so you all better review this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 14:31:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13572543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HailsRose/pseuds/HailsRose
Summary: Prediction: Mephisto finds himself in a moment startlingly similar to one from another time and another outcome.However, instead of Amaimon, it is his now youngest brother, stricken with a heavy truth on his shoulders, that he speaks to.





	If Only For a Moment

Mephisto waited. 

The cold winter snow seemed to settle on those small shoulders of his youngest brother. For a moment, he looked vulnerable and frail. It was something Mephisto had seen on few people before now and he certainly didn’t expect it from Rin. 

“So you see, Okumura, nothing in the world is quite what you thought,” Mephisto said, eyes tracing the familiar outline of Rin’s naked demon heart—so fragile. He could crush it without a thought if he so desired. 

“Yeah,” Rin whispered hoarsely and Mephisto pretended not to notice the way his voice cracked. “To think… that mom and the old man and Satan and you, it was all… it was all that. And it was all… so scary. I mean, if you had told me this before I don’t think- I don’t think I would have…” He couldn't seem to find the right words but the way he exhaled as if his breath had been stolen from his lungs caught Mephisto’s attention. 

Mephisto waited. 

And he knew why. 

Before his eyes, the sun began to kiss the sky and paint its midnight inkiness in pale yellow and blue. The dawning rays were framed by a light snow and a chilly temperature that could freeze the hot air being pushed from a human’s mouth. Mephisto smirked, he almost made a movement to tip a hat he wasn’t wearing. 

“You know,” Mephisto broke the silence, watching the sunrise himself, pulling Rin from his deep stupor. “A long time ago, I made a maddening bet with a man. The stakes were life and death, truly an adventure to behold. I won, of course. But as I went to collect his life on a field of destruction while the quiet dawn was rising, he spoke his final words.” 

Mephisto waited. 

Rin tilted his head, staring at the demon of a man as if to silently inquire. No, he’d inquire out loud. “What did he say?” 

Mephisto chuckled lowly, shaking his head slowly, amused undertones working their way around his intrigued timbre. He parted his lips, revealing carnivorous teeth; a wisp of breath escaped him, floating into the air as fleeting and forgotten as one second of time that no person would ever get back. 

“He said, 'Stop, time! Thou art so beautiful!’” Mephisto reached upward, spreading his arms broadly as if the capture the entire sky in his grasp. Rin’s eyes widened but he dared not interrupt if Mephisto was going to finish his story. “I think it is only now that I truly understand what he meant.” 

Rin’s human heart had skipped a beat, thrumming against the inside of his ribcage as though he’d just run a marathon. But a new peace whelmed his figure as he slumped against the balcony’s intricate railing. His glowing eyes glazed over as he watched the sun climb higher into the sky to chase away the starry diamonds and the unforgiving night. Like it was bleeding life into something that had been deprived of it for countless minutes.

“Yeah…” Rin breathed. 

And the world held still, if only for one misty-eyed moment.


End file.
